Custom VSME software for supply chain requests
You are not subject to the CSRD, but your customers are. And they need supply chain data, so you receive a separate questionnaire from each client, in its own format, with its own deadline. Forty lists a year that largely ask the same things. The VSME exists to replace them with a single answer.
Why the questions land with you
Companies reporting under the CSRD must also say something about their value chain. They do not know this information by themselves, so they ask their suppliers. That is legitimate, but for you it is a burden nobody designed: each customer asks the same questions slightly differently, in its own portal or spreadsheet, with its own definition of what a scope or a unit is.
The VSME is the European standard meant to put an end to this. It was developed by EFRAG, the same organisation behind the ESRS, and consists of two modules: a basic module with eleven disclosures, of which B1 and B2 are overarching and B3 through B11 are the basic indicators, and a more comprehensive module for those who want or need to report more. On 30 July 2025, the European Commission adopted a recommendation to use it as the basis for voluntary SME reporting, precisely to reduce the scattered requests.
Something else is also at play. With the Omnibus and the proposed threshold of a thousand employees, a large group of companies falls outside the mandatory CSRD, yet they still look for a way to share sustainability information because their customers and financiers ask for it. So do not expect the questions to disappear; expect them to increasingly resemble the VSME. The standard and the recommendation are available at RVO.
The request you answer with the VSME stems from your customer's own due diligence obligation. What that obligation has entailed since Omnibus I, and why it focuses specifically on direct suppliers, is explained at CSDDD software.
If you also supply others, the same question applies one link further along. You record your observations of your own suppliers with the supplier visit app.
How we build this
The question is not how you report, but how you can reuse the same data multiple times without looking it up again. That is what we build the design around.
Collect the lists you completed over the past year. In practice, seventy to eighty per cent turn out to ask the same things in different words, and that overlap is the entire business case.
Where does your energy consumption come from, your staff figures, your waste streams? Designating one source for each indicator is more important than the indicator itself, because otherwise you will report a different figure for the same question next year.
Each sprint ends with something you can check yourself, and we start with the eleven disclosures of the basic module. That is what most customers ask for; extending it is always possible.
We take the last questionnaire you received and answer it from the system. Whatever does not come out is exactly what still needs to be recorded.
What the software actually does
Everything revolves around one dataset that serves several questionnaires. The rest of the components exist to keep that set populated and up to date.
One dataset per reporting year
The indicators from the basic module with their value, unit, source and calculation method. If you give the same figure to two customers, you also give the same justification twice.
Linking requests to your own indicators
A question from customer A and a question from customer B that mean the same thing point to the same indicator. Completing a response then becomes a matter of assigning rather than looking things up again.
Response history per customer
What you reported, when, and to whom. This saves you from administration when a customer asks next year why a figure has changed, and you need to be able to explain the difference.
Data from your own systems
Energy bills, headcounts, waste streams and kilometres already exist somewhere. Retyping them is where errors creep in and where the work costs time every year.
Customer deadlines monitored
Each customer has its own timing, and those rarely coincide with your own year-end close. A single calendar showing what is due when prevents the emergency job two days before a deadline.
Making visible what you do not know
There are questions you cannot answer, and that is a legitimate answer, provided you do it deliberately. The system flags those points instead of leaving them blank, so you can choose what you will measure this year.
Who we build for
How heavily this weighs depends on the number of customers asking and on how much you produce yourself. Four situations.
Suppliers in the manufacturing industry
You supply larger manufacturers and OEMs, all of whom fall under the CSRD. This is the group that receives the most questionnaires and where the overlap between lists is greatest. If you supply the food chain, these questions often come together with certification requirements; see audit file IFS and BRCGS.
Trade and distribution
You sit between producer and customer, so you receive questions that are really about your supplier. That makes passing information on part of the work, and you will want a questionnaire side of your own too. The figures usually come from your ERP.
Service providers and contractors
In tenders and framework agreements, sustainability questions return as award criteria. Here it is not about reporting but about being able to give a credible answer on time.
Advisers and accountants
If you work for several SMEs, you need the same structure for each client with a hard separation between them. If your client reports under the CSRD itself, then CSRD reporting software is the right answer; this page is about the supplier who receives the questionnaire.
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The standard is still in motion: with the Omnibus, a revised version is expected that will likely become the baseline from 2027. Anything related to the indicator structure should therefore be configurable and stored per version.
If you also want a double materiality assessment that can be followed, take a look at our double materiality tool.
Why Appfront
Record once, use many times
The benefit lies not in the report but in reusability. We link requests to your own indicators, so the fortieth questionnaire takes less work than the first.
The same number for everyone
Two clients receiving different figures for the same question is a risk nobody sees coming. One source per indicator prevents that.
Not your financial year, but your clients'
Deadlines come from outside and are spread throughout the year. We build the calendar around them rather than around your own year-end.
Honest about what this is not
The VSME is voluntary and not a certificate. We are not sustainability advisers and do not decide which indicators are relevant to you; we build the system in which your answers are generated and kept substantiated.
Security and privacy
This data seems harmless, but it isn't. Energy consumption, headcount and waste streams together say a great deal about your size, your capacity and your cost structure, and you provide them to clients who are at the same time your negotiating partners. What you have disclosed to whom is therefore information you want to keep firmly in your own hands; the system shows per client what has been shared and keeps it separate.
There is also a people dimension. Absence, accidents and workforce composition are indicators that quickly become traceable in small numbers: in a team of eight, an average is not anonymisation. We therefore build in a threshold below which a figure is not shared but flagged as not reported, and you determine that threshold. In addition, we store every reported value with its date and source, so you can explain a difference between two years rather than having to reconstruct it. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside go through our vulnerability disclosure policy.
Frequently asked questions about the VSME
No, the VSME is a voluntary standard. The pressure does not come from legislation but from your supply chain: clients reporting under the CSRD need data on their value chain and pass those questions on to you. The VSME exists to standardise those questions. Whether you start is therefore a commercial consideration rather than a compliance question.
The CSRD is an obligation for large and listed companies, with the ESRS as its standard. The VSME is voluntary, much shorter, and designed for SMEs that do not fall under it but are asked for information. If you report under the CSRD yourself, this is not the right page; see CSRD software.
Two modules. The basic module contains eleven disclosures: B1 and B2 are overarching, and B3 through B11 are the basic indicators. There is also a more extensive module for those who want or need to report more. In practice, most clients ask for the basic module; check the current version of the standard, as it is revised.
No, and we should be honest about that. Your clients will continue to use their own portals. What changes is that you draw the answers from a single source instead of looking them up again for each list, and that you give everyone the same figure. Some clients now accept a VSME report in place of their own questionnaire; that is a conversation you have with them.
Then you indicate that rather than leaving the field empty or estimating. The standard allows you not to report everything, and an honest "not measured" is defensible; an invented figure is not. The system flags those points, so you can decide what you will still measure in the coming year.
Probably yes, and to your advantage. With the proposed threshold of a thousand employees, a large group falls outside the mandatory CSRD, and those companies are also looking for a way to share data themselves. A revised VSME is expected and is likely to become the standard from 2027. That is why we build the indicator structure to be adjustable and stored per version.
Yes, and that is where the time saving lies. Energy consumption comes from invoices, staff figures from your HR system, mileage from your fleet records. What can be integrated depends on your packages; we inventory that in advance. Where integration is not possible, manual entry remains an option, but only once. This runs through integrations.
That depends on the number of indicators you want to track, the number of requesters and whether integration with your administration is involved. The basic module with response history is usually quick to become useful and delivers the most value; integrations cost more. We provide a substantiated estimate after the discovery phase.
Ready to have VSME software built?
Send us two questionnaires you have completed this year. The number of questions that appear in both is usually the whole argument. We build this as a standalone application and as part of a wider custom software project. If you report yourself under the CSRD, then CSRD reporting software is the right place.